Hospital nuisance

Yesterday Grand ma got discharged from the Hospital after two months and 4 days. Long time...... I went to the hospital just to make sure all the nursing staff and people involved with my grand ma knows that she needs an ambulance to go home because there is one flight of stairs that she can’t climb anymore.

So.... I get to work and get a call at 1 pm from a nurse and she said “Grand Ma is ready to go home, and you can pick her up any time”, my reaction was “wtf??????”. I tell her that I cannot take her home she needs an ambulance and need to picked up in a stretcher and taken up a flight of stairs. “Uh… oh… Ok, maybe I missed that. Let me arrange for that and we’ll let you know when she is getting dropped off” replies the nurse on the phone.

So.... I get a call at 2:30 pm from a nurse and she said “We have SMT(may be that’s what its called, but its juts a home transport service at the hospital) here and they are leaving in 5 minutes”, my reaction was “wtf??????”. I knew that these people do not have proper equipment to lift her and take her upstairs, one flight of stairs that is. So I tell the nurse AGAIN, that she needs to be transported in an ambulance and need to be picked up and taken up a FLIGHT OF STAIRS. Nurse tells me “Uh…. Oh… Ok, Let me call them ask them not to leave, they are just down stairs and I will arrange an ambulance. I will call you back in 10 minutes”. Okayyy…..

So.... I get a call at 2:45 pm from SMT people who had brought grand ma home and can’t take her up because they don’t have proper equipment. My reaction was “wtf???????????????” So the hospital staff couldn’t reach them before they left and now she is home but can’t go home. Given grand ma’s fragile state it was not worth taking a risk and told SMT people to take her back to the hospital and arrange an ambulance to bring her back.

Now, furious as I was, I called the hospital and talked to the nurse and asked her why did something so simple getting screwed up so many times. Her response… “ “ NOTHING. All she that information was not being communicated through the shift changes. I have no words to describe how utterly stupid that sounded.. its like you are talking to a dummy. Really…. They do shift change 3 times a day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year…. One would think they would have figured out how to pass on the information by now. Just really really dumb.

Anyways, after waiting for an ambulance at the hospital grand ma finally came home at 5:30 and that’s all it matters. Home feels like home again now she is back.